Whats the expected wattage from the 250 with fresh, good, tubes? I knew a guy that bragged his 250 would swing to 1KW on high but i cant see how it will do that much. he said he reworked the amp so it could use bigger tubes and such. The one i used to own would do a max of 650 on high but it had older tubes inside it as well..

If you change the drivers to 6LQ6 or 6KV6 tubes you will see a couple hundred more watts. Most Mavericks will key 250 and swing to 500 with stock tubes. I have seen a few Phantoms and Mavericks that will do more than others but they had a different transformer in them than most of the units do. He might have removed the tuned input and drove the drivers (6LQ6's) direct but I still don't think it would do 1KW, at least not for long.

fdirsh

Posted on Tuesday, December 10, 2002 - 10:01 am:

there was a run of these with extra hot trannys that would yield 480 DK and pep around 900 watts

If it really says "Maverick" on it and not "MDX" it's more than old enough to buy a drink legally. If the filter capacitors on the HV are original, they may be "fading", losing storage capacity. Original filters seem to last longer than they should in a lot of these. The industry considered 20 years an upper limit on lifespan when those parts were made. I have seen this kind of amplifier show a jump in power by a quarter or third more when old filters get replaced. Leaves a wide range of uncertainty about what power any one specimen will give you, even if all the tubes are fresh as a daisy.

73

bullet

Posted on Thursday, December 12, 2002 - 4:39 am:

wattage refrances....gotta love them.

its very unrealiable to compare wattages from user to user unless you have a constant or some standard to gauge against.

like antennas use the dipole or 1/4~ isotropic ant,as a gauge of comparision between antennas thus should it be with transmitters and wattmeters. alot of people use the bird 43 as the "industry's standard" for wattage referance.

ive seen and heard some wild power claims from guys with 50 watts radios, using dual-2312's as finals. that are capable of 36-37 watts for the pair. when put on a good wattmeter that "does not" show overmodulated harmonics as added forward power they fall in around the 15-18 watt range on the ole 43. my own experience with a comparison between a dosy test center 4002 and the ole 43 was interesting as well.

my old phantom showed a solid 1000 watts rms on the bird and showed around 1400+ rms on the dosy.further inspection of both meters put to rest all doubts when looking at the rf sampling sections of both meters. from huge to almost nothing on the dosy.

so to answer your question you could see between 500-600 to 1000+ watts depending on how the hole station is set up. example: if your driving 150% modulation into this box going into a lesser quality wattmeter it will show you kicking a$$ on that meter,high swr shows more power as well. but dont be fooled it's harmonics showing false readings couple this with swr coming back thru the meter showing more power than is really out going. not saying this is your case at all, but something ive seen time again in cb land.(me included) alot of times you cant get thru to them thier 120 dollar cb meter is not very good test equipment when you look at the big picture. afew more bucks would have got a good one though.

wow, it 430am here and i kinda went on.....later

CM 3885

Posted on Thursday, December 12, 2002 - 12:48 pm:

Bird meters are OK if you are a tech but for a average joe Cber that are a waste of $$$. I knew a guy that spent 500.00 for a meter and slugs and boy oh boy, was he dissapointed! I think he sold it like a mont later and bought another dosy. Me myself i wouldnt have a bird 43 given to me let alone spend that kind of $$$ on a fancy meter that i wouldnt like anywaus because they dont swing like a Dosy. yes i like to see the swing and a Bird dont do it for me!!! This post was intended as a reference on the mave 250 amo not meant to be a meter swing argument.

I prefer a chevy truck to a mercedes they swing or bounce on the bumps more,less quality more fun to drive,I think there's a parallel here,hmmm.

CM 3885

Posted on Friday, December 13, 2002 - 12:34 am:

LOL!!!! Im a Chevy person myself.. Yet another parallel!

bullet

Posted on Friday, December 13, 2002 - 3:00 am:

lol, no i was'nt trying to argue who's the best meter at all thats obvious,what i was saying was that everyones cb meters read very different readings so you will get a large ball park of answers on what they percieve as normal power out put. and that it would be nice to have a standard that everyone could measure rf power against.....like antennas builder use the dipole as a measuring stick. thats all, relax and dont get so excited!

CM 3885

Posted on Friday, December 13, 2002 - 7:46 am:

Actually on my Dosy meter ive observed that at higher swr readings instead of surging forward my meter will actually read a peak power level much lower than with a swr below a 1.4=1. but my radios all seem to work the best with a 1.2=1 to a 1.3=1 swr for some odd reason....

Yeah a standard would be nice like those used to calibrate true test equipment. I've got the Dosy 4002PSW and will probably never spend the bucks on a Bird because I run little (if any) power nowadays. Just not that big of a deal anymore but do like the modulation percentages the Dosy gives me on AM and SSB. That was my purchase selling point.

As for meters and swing, here's a quick story. I have a little Uniden pro510 that has years of abuse (had it in the boat and have got my money's worth for sure). I decided to let the local chop shop tune it just to give him some business when it was slow. On my meter (prior to the Dosy), it DK'd 3 and swung to 6 watts. On his CB shop meter, Deadkeyed 3 and swung to about 13. Well he tuned it up and on his meter, it DK'd 3 swinging 45 watts! Now I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed but 45 watts from a little Pro510XL seemed a little on the extreme side to me LOL! Anyway, once home I hooked it up to my meter and it had some swing, but only about 15 watts, still DK'ing 3 watts. Maybe a little more realistic reading.

As a CB shop owner and tech, he knows most CB'rs want to see that swing, so he's got him a meter that shows it for sure. Point is, (as said above), all meters will read differently unless they fall into a calibrated system, and even there still remains what tolerences is acceptable.

Sometime I'll hook it up to the Dosy just to see how it compares. 45 watts???/give me a break

im sure he also has a buy and sell meter like the guy up the road here has. one shows awesome watts the other real low wattage.

CM 3885

Posted on Saturday, December 14, 2002 - 5:46 pm:

This whole wattage deal is a bunch of C_R_A_P plain and simple! Everyones meter will show different wattages and noit everyone set up is like the other guys. IMHO a meter is just a reference guide and NO MORE. I can show you a cobra 25 ltd that will do 10 watts 100 watts or 1KW! it is just a guide. my setup my meter is the very very last thing i worry about im more concerned about my antenna and my radio than my meter. I run a Dosy and IMHO its one of the best meters on the garden variety market for CB gear. I mean i cant see spending 250.00 for a meter than have to go out and buy slugs and such. Id spend the $$$ or a radio or a good beam myself but thats just me.....